A blog on politics and education, supporting socialist ideals and equality of opportunity. Against obscene wealth and inequality.

Saturday, 20 May 2017

Letter Morning Star published plus 1 the i didn`t

Emily
Thornberry`s succinct but accurate condemnation of the claim made by Michael
Fallon about Labour`s policy towards the Falklands can be extended to a large
majority of the pledges made by the Conservative party in recent months (Morning
Star,15/05/17). Two budgets have proved the mistake of believing May`s promises
to help the "just about managing", just as cuts to council grants exposed the
myth that was George Osborne`s "northern powerhouse".

Labour has rightly labelled May`s proposals to increase social housingas
"spin with no substance" whilst the prime minister`s plan to introduce "the
biggest extension of workers` rights by any Conservative government" again
reveals how these arrogant Tories are treating the voters as mugs (Morning
Star,16/05/17) . As practically all Conservative governments throughout history
have reduced unions and workers` rights, one would have to go back to Disraeli`s
administration of 1874-80, to see a Tory government extending them. His
Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act restored the right of trade union
members to picket peacefully, a blatant attempt by Disraeli to woo the working
class voters. His duplicity was obvious, and he lost the 1880 election. We can
only hope history does sometimes repeat itself.

Imagine the fuss there would have been if Labour
had not explained in great detail how it was going to pay for its planned
expenditure! Yet, when the Tories do exactly that, your paper acknowleges it
with a brief article, taking up approximately one tenth of page 5 (Heavy on
policy, but light on costings, 19/05/17). Half of page 8, however, is devoted to
an anaysis of Labour`s costings relating to just one of its manifesto`s fiscal
points, the increase of corporation tax to 26% (Fact Check: Could Labour raise
£19,4bn by increasing corporation tax? 19/05/17). Even this failed to mention
that the levels of corporation tax in France, Italy, the USA and Germany are all
higher than the one proposed by Labour.